This Millionaire Built An Ark And The Reason Will Shock You!

If someone has millions and millions of dollars, they have the rare feeling of not worrying about their bills and day to day needs. Their responsibilities are taken care of, and as a result, they can spend on some of their wants and desires in life. While most people may splurge on cars, vacations, and homes, not the man that this article will take a look at, he spent on something far different. The person that this article will look at is a millionaire who used his money to realize a very spiritual goal he has in his mind, which he was able to make a reality.

#15 Giant Boat in the Netherlands

There are a lot of boats around in various bodies of water all over the world, but this one is different. Somewhere along the Merwede river in the Netherlands, there is a gigantic boat. And the boat is very unique. So who built it, and why did they build it in the first place?

#14 The Story Began in 1992

In 1992, there was a millionaire named Johan Huibers, who is the focus of this story. Huibers was a multi-millionaire and was also a hardcore creationist. He had a dream that the low-lying Dutch coast would become flooded, which led him to decide to build a giant ark. But what inspired him to build it?

#13 He was Inspired By the Bible

As you could imagine, he was inspired by the story of Noah’s Ark. In Genesis, Noah was told by God to build an ark and Huibers decided to build his own in 2005. His ark was giant as it was 230 feet long and even used the boat to travel around the Netherlands for over three years.

#12 But He Still Had an Itch

Despite building the giant boat and traveling with it, he wasn’t quite satisfied yet. His creationist itch wasn’t scratched just yet. In 2009, he decided to take that idea of building an ark to a bigger level. He desired to build an ark that was the exact same size as the one in the Bible.

#11 It Wasn’t Cheap

But while his idea was a great one in his mind, he knew it would not be cheap to build and construct. In total, the project cost him about $1.6 Million and took him around three years to build. But despite this long project and the fact it cost a ton, money wasn’t an issue at all.

#10 He Stuck to His Word About the Detail

When he finally finished up the project, it was an immense success in many ways. The completed structure was gigantic and measured up exactly with the blueprints of Noah’s Ark from the bible. His new ark measured in at 430 feet long, 100 feet wide and 75 feet high.

#9 As You Could Imagine, It Took a Lot of Material

In something that shouldn’t surprise anyone, this huge task of building an ark that size takes a ton of materials. It needed to be flood proof and totally liveable. So once the finished product was done, it weighed in at 2,500 tons and feature five decks. It definitely used thousands of pounds of materials.

#8 Huibers Wasn’t Afraid of Hard Work

Despite the fact that Huibers was rich enough to basically pay people to do all the work on the entire ark for him, that was not what he decided to do. He is a dedicated Christian and isn’t afraid of hard work. In fact, he actually works as a carpenter, which is exactly what his idol did as well.

#7 He Wanted to Share His Creation

Once his idea was brought to life, in 2012, he did not want to keep his amazing creation to himself. This makes a lot of sense because it could hold an absolutely astounding 5,000 people. To keep something of that size to yourself would be selfish, and that is not the kind of person Huibers is.

#6 But How Did He Make it Authentic?

But Huibers didn’t want people to just walk on his ark and explore a completely barren and boring boat, he wanted to make it an authentic experience. For people who know about the bible, you know that Noah allegedly had enough space to house two of every animal on earth. Well, Huibers even followed that part of the plan, kind of.

#5 He Filled the Rafters With Animals

In order to make an authentic experience, Huibers decided to fill the rafters with life-size plastic sculptures of the animals that Noah apparently had on the ark. We knew he was a stickler for detail, but this is taking it to a whole other level, and one that his visitors definitely appreciate.

#4 Animals Weren’t Cheap

Like everything that went into building this massive ark, adding the animals for authenticity did not come cheap. These things cost thousands and thousands of dollars and it showed just how serious Huibers was to make sure he got an authentic experience. Even a single life-sized plastic elephant cost him a massive $11,000.

#3 The Ark Also Housed Real Animals Too

Huibers didn’t just put plastic animals on the boat. In fact, he decided to even put some real animals in the ark to take his idea as big as it could go. But alas, the live animals aren’t as big as the plastic elephants and such on board. Most of the live animals on the ark are things like birds and rabbits.

#2 The Ark Became an Entertainment Complex

But if the visitors on board are tired of visiting with the bunnies, there is a ton of other things to do on board. Huibers made a lot of additions to the ark to make it a better experience for visitors. The ark has a restaurant on board and even two cinemas, along with a lot of information about the flood story.

#1 He Has Big Plans for the Future

Huibers, who is obviously not afraid of doing things big and testing boundaries, has big plans for the future. He plans to take the boat across the world, but like everything in relation to this project, it will not be cheap. But, in no surprise, Huibers is not worried at all about the costs.

So as you can see, this man decided to spend his millions on something near and dear to his heart and something that was in line with his religious beliefs. That is an admirable thing as a lot of millionaires simply spend on material objects. I guess that is their choice and such, but it is nice to see someone spend so much money on their beliefs, even though a lot of people may not understand it. But not only did he bring his idea to life, he did it in a spectacular way as you could see throughout this article.